"Could have been fantastic but it's ruined by 1 major flaw."

Let me start off by saying that I was looking forward to this game for a very long time. When I finally got it I was ecstatic and I wasn't disappointed at all for the first several zones. The game is gorgeous, absolutely breathtaking in it's visuals and it's the kind of stuff I wish the US could see more often in games. The sound track is perfect and the combat system is up to par. However as you play through the game you notice the occasional spot of terrible lag. They are however few and far between and it never becomes more than the occasional annoyance. Then you hit up the netherworld and it becomes as much a part of the game as swinging away with your weapon. It's awful. game play slows down to about a 1/4 of normal speed and frame-rate goes to hell. The final boss of the first storyline is almost entirely fought in slow-mo, even when there a no enemies on the screen. This to me was unacceptable. I cannot fathom how developers are willing to let games go to street with issues like this.

Visuals: 10/10

Like I said earlier the game is beautiful in every way. Nuff said.

Sound: 10/10

With an original score that fits perfectly, top notch voice acting and appropriate sound effects it all blends together very well.

Game play: 5/10

Yep, a 5. The horrible lag was unacceptable. The battle system was decent but enemies do a lot of damage and have an annoying habit of starting an attack while you thought they were in stunlock from your combo which means that since you can't simply jump out of the way at any point you're now in stunlock by your own combo. It's really not too bad once you get used to it but you end up using the same single move a lot and rarely get to finish a basic combo (the fastest way to deal damage) without taking hits. The mini bosses are where this gets really annoying since the can typically two shot you and give you only barely enough warning before attacks. Like I said it's actually not too hard to go through the game without so much as getting hit but if you play safe then battles take way too long and get boring. Being a fan of the 2D side-scrollers I found this one a little basic. The lag is what really kills this category though. I played for about 6 hours straight having a wonderful, challenging time only to lose all interest for several days to advance. Without the lag though I'd probably give and 8/10 for this.

Final thoughts.

I would have rather seen this game, exactly how it is on a next-gen console since the ps2 obviously can't handle it (either that or the coding team responsible should all be shot). There was so much potential and it's perfect in it's presentation but the lag makes it so much of a chore to get through parts of the game. Who knows maybe it won't bother you nearly as much but it made me pretty angry as I'm sure you can tell.